Tray and Reusable Bottle Arrangement for Storage and Handling

ABSTRACT

A tray and bottle arrangement has a tray for holding several reusable bottles. The tray has an elongated body and defines several pockets adjacent one another in the top of the tray. Each pocket has a cylindrical sidewall with narrow channels communicating between adjacent pockets so that the sides of adjacent bottles can touch one another. Fingers extend from the top surface of the tray on both sides of the pockets and engage the sides of the bottles within the pockets. Also, ribs extend into the pockets from the pockets&#39; sidewalls that engage the sides of the bottles to hold them in the tray.

BACKGROUND

Disposable plastic bottles have become increasingly popular. This has been especially true for plastic water bottles, which are inexpensive and convenient. Each year, consumers purchase and dispose of billions of water bottles. Unfortunately, the current recycling system is incapable of keeping up with this amount of consumption, and only a small percentage of the disposed bottles are recycled. For example, most people drink bottled water while away from their homes when they are at the gym, park, sporting events, etc. Usually, these locations offer no recycling alternatives so the used bottles simply end up as trash or litter. As expected, all of these discarded bottles impact the environment, creating waste and using up finite resources.

As people have become more concerned about the environment, companies have begun providing reusable drinking bottles for consumers to use. For example, companies offer sports bottles that consumers can fill and refill as a reusable alternative to drinking bottled water in disposable containers. Although such bottles are helpful in reducing waste from disposable water bottles, what is needed is an easy way for consumers to store and fill reusable water bottles.

SUMMARY

A tray and bottle arrangement has a tray for holding several reusable bottles. The tray has an elongated body and defines several pockets adjacent one another in the top of the tray. Each pocket has a cylindrical sidewall with narrow channels communicating between adjacent pockets so that the sides of adjacent bottles can touch one another. Fingers extend from the top surface of the tray on both sides of the pockets and engage the sides of the bottles within the pockets. Also, ribs extend into the pockets from the pockets' sidewalls that engage the sides of the bottles to hold them in the tray.

The foregoing summary is not intended to summarize each potential embodiment or every aspect of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tray according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the tray of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the tray of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4A is a side view of the tray having several bottles held therein.

FIG. 4B is a top view of the tray with the bottles.

FIG. 5 shows an end view of the tray with bottles while being tilted.

FIG. 6 shows a side view of the tray with bottle while being held vertically.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A tray 10 shown in FIGS. 1-5 is intended to hold several reusable bottles 50. As shown in FIGS. 1-3, the tray 10 has an elongated and flat body 20. The length and width of the body 20 is suitable for positioning the tray on the shelving in a refrigerator's interior or on the refrigerator's door. For example, the tray 10 can have a width (W) of about 7-cm, a length (L) of about 35-cm, and a height (H) of about 7.5-cm. With these dimensions, the tray 10 can keep the bottles 50 organized whether they are being cooled in a refrigerator on stored in a cabinet.

To hold the bottles 50, the tray 10 has several circular pockets 22 defined in the top of the body 20 along its length. Although five pockets 22 are shown, the tray 10 can have two or more pockets 22 for bottles. The five pockets 22 allow the tray 10 to hold five filled bottles 50, making the arrangement of bottles 50 and tray 10 suitable for holding one filled bottle 50 for each weekday. An alternative arrangement may have seven bottles 50 seven pockets 22 in the tray 10—one for each day of the week.

As shown in FIG. 2, adjacent pockets 22 have narrow channels 24 defined between them. In this way, the channels 24 allow the sides of adjacent bottles 50 to touch one another as shown in FIG. 4A, for example, to help support the bottles 50 in the tray 10. Handles 26 on each end of the body 20 allow a person to easily pull the tray 10 out of a refrigerator's interior when removing it from the interior shelving. Likewise, the handles 26 allow a person to easily lift the tray from the shelving on the refrigerator's door.

As best shown in FIGS. 1-2, the tray's body 20 has fingers 30 that extend on both sides of the body 20. These fingers 30 position at the narrow channels 24 between adjacent pockets 22. Each end of the body 20 also has extending end walls 35 where the handles 26 connect. The fingers 30 and end walls 35 extend a suitable distance to support the bottles 50 but still allow a person to easily insert and remove bottles in the tray's pockets 22. For their part, the bottles 50 have a diameter that minimizes the area they take up yet still provides ample volume when filled with a beverage. In one implementation, for example, the bottles 50 can have a diameter (A) of about 6-cm and a height (B) of about 22-cm as shown in FIG. 4A. In addition, the pockets 22 can have a depth (d) of about 7.4-cm, and the fingers 30 can extend a height (h) of 5.2-cm from the body's upper edge around the pockets 22. This makes the height (h) of the fingers 30 about 70% of the depth (d) of the pockets 22. For stability, the fingers 30 preferably extend at least half or more of the depth of the pockets 22. In general, the end walls 35 extend the same distance as the fingers 30 from the top of the tray 10.

In addition to the fingers 30 and end walls 35, the inner sidewalls of the pockets 22 have ribs 40 that extend outward into the pockets 22. As best shown in FIGS. 1-2, each pocket 22 can have four such ribs 40 formed at the pocket's quadrants, and the ribs 40 for adjacent pockets 22 position near the narrow channels 24 where the fingers 30 extend.

As shown in FIGS. 4A-4B, the fingers 30, end walls 35, ribs 40, and narrow channels 24 cooperate together to hold the bottles 50 in the tray 10. In particular, the bottles' bottom ends fit into the pockets 22, and the narrow channels 24 between pockets 22 allow the sides of the adjacent bottles 50 to fit tightly next to one another. Extending between the adjacent bottles 50, the fingers 30 help support the sides of the bottles 50, and the ribs 40 in the pockets 22 press against the lower ends of the bottles 50 to further help hold them in the pockets 22.

As shown in the end view of FIG. 5, the tray 10 holds the bottles 50 even if the tray 10 is tilted forward or backward along its length. This tilting may occur, for example, when a person is filling the bottles 50 at a water faucet before putting the tray 10 and filled bottles 50 in a refrigerator. By tightly holding the bottles 50 even when the tray 10 is tilted, the person filling the bottles 50 can do so while all the bottles 50 (whether empty or filled) are kept held in the tray 10. This makes filling the bottles 50 more convenient. This also prevents the bottles 50 from spilling out of the tray 10 when the tray 10 is put into or removed from the refrigerator.

As shown in the side view of FIG. 6, the tray 10 also holds the bottles 50 even if the tray 10 is tilted vertically. In FIG. 6, the tray 10 is shown held completely vertically and can hold the bottles 50 when empty even in this extreme orientation. In less vertical tilting, the tray 10 may be able to hold the bottles 50 even if filled. Moreover, the tray 10 can hold the bottles 50 in a vertical orientation even if some of the bottles 50 are missing from the tray 10 as shown in FIG. 6. Again, this ability to hold the bottles 50 makes using the tray 10 and bottles 50 more convenient.

The tray 10 disclosed herein has been depicted in a way to facilitate its description. It will be appreciated that the tray 10 can be aesthetically designed in different ways to enhance its ornamental appeal. For example, an ornamental design for a tray is depicted in co-pending U.S. Design patent application No. 29/306,915, which is incorporated herein by reference. The foregoing description of preferred and other embodiments is not intended to limit or restrict the scope or applicability of the inventive concepts conceived of by the Applicants. In exchange for disclosing the inventive concepts contained herein, the Applicants desire all patent rights afforded by the appended claims. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims include all modifications and alterations to the full extent that they come within the scope of the following claims or the equivalents thereof. 

1. An apparatus, comprising: a tray having a top, a bottom, first and second opposing sides, and first and second opposing ends, the top of the tray defining a plurality of pockets for receiving bottles, the pockets disposed adjacent one another from the first end to the second end of the tray and each having a sidewall and a bottom surface; a plurality of fingers extending from the top surface of the tray for engaging sides of the bottles, the fingers disposed on the first and second sides of the tray and disposed between adjacent ones of the pockets; and a plurality of ribs for engaging sides of the bottles, the ribs extending from the sidewalls of each of the pockets.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tray defines narrow channels communicating between the adjacent pockets and permitting the sides of adjacent bottles to engage one another.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising handles disposed on the first and second opposing ends of the tray.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising first and second end walls for engaging the sides of the bottles, the first and second end walls extending from the top of the tray adjacent the pockets at the first and second opposing ends of the tray.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first and second end walls each extend a same distance as the fingers from the top of the tray.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the pockets extends a first distance into the top of the tray, wherein each of the fingers extends a second distance from the top of the tray, and wherein the second distance is at least half or more than the first distance.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the pockets has at least four of the ribs disposed therein, the at least four ribs being positioned at four quadrants of the pocket.
 8. An apparatus, comprising: a plurality of bottles; a tray having a top, a bottom, first and second opposing sides, and first and second opposing ends, the top defining a plurality of pockets for receiving the bottles, the pockets disposed adjacent one another from the first end to the second end of the tray and each having a sidewall and a bottom surface; a plurality of fingers disposed on the first and second sides of the tray and extending from the top surface of the tray, each of the fingers disposed between adjacent ones of the pockets and engageable with sides of the bottles disposed in the adjacent pockets; and a plurality of ribs extending from the sidewalls of each of the pockets, the ribs being engageable with the sides of the bottles disposed in the pockets.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the tray defines narrow channels communicating between each of the adjacent pockets and permitting the sides of the adjacent bottles to engage one another.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising handles disposed on the first and second opposing ends of the tray.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising first and second end walls for engaging the sides of the bottles, the first and second end walls extending from the top of the tray adjacent the pockets at the first and second opposing ends of the tray.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first and second end walls each extend a same distance as the fingers from the top of the tray.
 13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein each of the pockets extends a first distance into the top of the tray, wherein each of the fingers extends a second distance away from the top of the tray, and wherein the second distance is at least half or more than the first distance.
 14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein each of the pockets has at least four of the ribs disposed therein, the at least four ribs being positioned at four quadrants of the pocket.
 15. An apparatus, comprising: a plurality of reusable bottles; a tray having a top, a bottom, first and second opposing sides, and first and second opposing ends, the top defining a plurality of pockets for receiving the bottles, the pockets disposed adjacent one another from the first end to the second end of the tray and each having a sidewall and a bottom surface, each of the adjacent pockets defining a narrow channel communicating therebetween allowing sides of the adjacent bottles to engage one another; a plurality of fingers disposed on the first and second sides of the tray and extending from the top surface of the tray, each of the fingers disposed between adjacent ones of the pockets and being engageable with the sides of the bottles disposed in the adjacent pockets; first and second end walls disposed at the first and second opposing ends of the tray, the first and second end walls extending from the top of the tray adjacent the pockets and being engageable with the sides of the bottles disposed in the adjacent pockets; and a plurality of ribs extending from the sidewalls of each of the pockets, the ribs being engageable with the sides of the bottles disposed in the pockets.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising handles disposed on the first and second end walls.
 17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein each of the pockets extends a first distance into the top of the tray, wherein each of the fingers extends a second distance away from the top of the tray, and wherein the second distance is at least half or more than the first distance.
 18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first and second end walls each extend a same distance as the fingers from the top of the tray.
 19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein each of the pockets has at least four of the ribs disposed therein, the at least four ribs being positioned at four quadrants of the sidewall of the pocket. 